Patsy Gilreath Moore, affectionately known as âMama Moore,â was born in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, on Dec. 22, 1940. She was the eldest of seven children born to Greene and Grace Dean Gilreath. As a young girl, she had a love for books, reading, and playing the piano. During her teenage years, she was a pianist at Saint Home United Methodist Church.
In 1958, she graduated salutatorian from Lincoln High School, and in 1962, she earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in both French and English from Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina.
She moved to Miami, Florida, in 1962 and began her career as an educator at North Dade Senior High School. That year, she met and married Algernon J. Moore, Sr. To their forty-year union, five children were born, two sons: Howard and Algernon Jr., and three daughters: Angela, Joanna, and Rachel.